October 2012 PBIS Front Page Newsletter

Congratulations to the schools that have been nominated for
legislator visits due to their implementation of PBIS. A number of
schools across the state have already had senators visit their
buildings! For a list of schools, please visit http://www.pbisillinois.org/schools/selected-schools.

Evaluation Tools

Two evaluation tools your teams should be focusing on in the
fall are the Team Implementation Checklist (TIC) and
the Phases of Implementation (PoI).

The TIC helps your team assess if the
foundational elements of PBIS are in place. After a school scores a 70%
or higher on the Benchmarks of Quality (BoQ), teams typically consider their
foundations to be in place and stop using the TIC to assess. However,
if you have had any major changes in your building (i.e.: administration
changes, internal coach changes), revisiting the TIC may be beneficial.
The TIC should be used in October, January, and March.

The Illinois Phases of Implementation (PoI) tool
provides an itemized rubric to guide action planning at all three
tiers. The PoI has been improved for the 2012-13 school year, to
clarify the benchmarks around family engagement, Tier 2 and Tier 3, and
ensure benchmarks are aligned with effective implementation in each
phase. We recommend all External Coaches (ECs) facilitate the fall PoI
by November 30, 2012, for TACs to then access the data and
support ECs through action planning and technical assistance. Watch
your email and the website this week for more details on the updated tool,
the supporting rubric, and the link for ECs to enter their schools’ completed
PoIs online: http://www.pbisillinois.org/evaluation/tier-1-tools.

Coaching Tips for Using Evaluation Tools

Use the supportingPhases
of Implementation (PoI)rubric
to help guide your team’s discussion to determine if each item is in place on
the PoI. This rubric can be found athttp://www.pbisillinois.org/evaluation/tier-1-tools.
If there are items that are not in place, develop action steps to make these
features stronger in your building. Then you can review the PoI again
in the spring to gauge progress from those action steps. Remember the
PoI is guiding your implementation with fidelity, so assessing your building
accurately and with strong expectations leads to higher implementation with fidelity.

Another reminder is to use yourMulti-Tier Action Plan (MAP)to capture all action steps in one
place! The MAP can be accessed at http://www.pbisillinois.org/evaluation/tier-1-tools.
Also, do not forget about the action steps you identified on your MAP last
school year to ensure those were accomplished or consider additional
planning. For steps that were accomplished, review your outcome data to
determine success and share that data with your staff. Looking at
longitudinal data across multiple school years is important to check
implementation. The Year End Report on SWIS is a good
way to look at longitudinal data.

Monthly Challenge

Have you set your group norms for your team meetings? From the
September External Coaches Network Meeting and Front Page
Newsletter we learned that establishing group norms is important to
build team capacity and keep meetings focused. If you have not done so,
take time at the beginning of your next meeting to establish these agreed
upon expectations for your team.

Staff acknowledgment is an important component to your
implementation process. Keep your staff engaged by regularly sharing data and
recognizing their consistent participation in using a common language.
Include this action step on your Multi-tiered Action Plan (MAP) and
revisit monthly.

Active supervision is a method of behavior
support that can help decrease problem behavior, promote pro-social behavior,
and increase positive adult/student interactions. Active supervision is
an evidence based practice that is effective in both classroom and
non-classroom (e.g., playground or cafeteria) settings. Active
supervision consists of three key adult behaviors: 1) moving around; 2)
looking around (scanning); and 3) interacting frequently with students.
Access a great resource on active supervision in non-structured settings at:
http://youtube/LNNu81faisQ.

Secondary and Tertiary Coaching

As we enter October, it is important to consider the sensitivity
of your data decision rules for students needing Tier 2 supports. To
ensure students are receiving supports before they move beyond at-risk, teams
should be identifying the majority of students in need of higher supports
prior to Halloween. Lower level interventions (CICO and SAIG) should be
supporting at least 7 to 10% of your student population by October 31st.
If your tracking tool is not showing this percentage, then your team should
consider revisiting your data decision rules for Tier 2 interventions to
identify lower risk students to meet the 7 to 10% mark. Response to
intervention (RtI) is about early identification and intervention.

Tier 2/Tier 3 Readiness Checklist

Also, your teams should be aware of the new process of
self-assessing readiness for Tier 2/Tier 3 for both school buildings and
districts. Check our website for these readiness tools that will help
district and building teams, along with their leaders, reflect on critical
features necessary for strong, sustainable Tier 2/Tier 3 implementation:http://www.pbisillinois.org/trainings/tier-2-3-readiness.
The results of the readiness checklist will be used to help determine when
districts and schools are ready to proceed to brief FBA/BIP, complex FBA/BIP,
wraparound and RENEW training.

School Family Community Partnerships (SFCP)

Be sure to visit the Illinois PBIS Network website's new SFCP
tab, http://www.pbisillinois.org/sfcp, for ideas and tips on how to improve collaboration
with family and community members, and increase team membership. This
tab also contains information for families and schools on upcoming
Family/Community Team Member Network meetings, and how districts can sign up
to host one of these unique networking opportunities.

We have had one SFCP meeting this year and we
want to offer these network meeting opportunities throughout the state at
least quarterly. Please contact Patti Bardell (patti.bardell@pbisillinois.org) if your district would like to host a network meeting
this semester. The Illinois PBIS Network provides support for these
meetings including facilitation, ppt/training material and a light meal. Host
districts are asked to provide the meeting site and child care. The
next SFCP meeting is at Harvard School District 50 on October 24th from
5:30pm – 7:00pm.

In an effort to help schools increase
family/community membership on PBIS teams, these valuable team members can register
for any PBIS training at a discounted half-off price.
Districts should register these family/community team members in the
same way as other participants and note their role in the registration system
as "family or community member". Please share this
information with all district/school leaders. We hope this will
contribute to encouraging schools to invite several family/community members
per school team for all trainings and support these members on teams.

Coaching Corner/Tips

During our October External Coaches Network Meetings the topic
of Asking Thoughtful and Reflective Questions as a coaching
strategy will be explored. Some of the highlights include:

What is Thoughtful and Reflective
Questioning?

A skill set of questioning used to inform the coach of a
team’s knowledge and intentions, which allows a coach to probe for
deeper complexity

A strategy used by coaches to encourage further reflection
by the team to clarify its thinking and uncover possibilities and
solutions

Why is Thoughtful and Reflective
Questioning Important?

Thoughtful questioning can guide teams to be reflective of
their practice

Thoughtful questioning helps build team capacity through
evaluation of current status and determination of next steps

How does Thoughtful and Reflective
Questioning help a coach enable a team to develop skills and competencies to
function independently?

Carefully chosen thoughtful and specific questions help a
team move forward with intent and focus

Asking the right kinds of questions reflect respect and
empower a team to progress confidently by using their own
problem-solving skills

Helps team create short-term solutions to problems at hand
while enabling team to gain confidence to handle long-term situations
independently

A District Leadership Team’s (DLT) role in developing Evaluation
Capacity will also be addressed during October’s External Coaches Network Meeting.
One of a DLT’s functions is to support and sustain the accurate implementation
of evidence-based practices across the district. The DLT establishes
measurable outcomes used to determine if implementation efforts are effective
or if modifications to the action plan are necessary. To find out more
about facilitating data-based decision making using district-wide data,
participate in a network meeting in your area during the month of October.

____________________________________________

Upcoming Events ____________________________________________

This month state, district, and leadership teams will have an
opportunity to come together at the 2012 National PBIS Leadership Forum
on October 18-19, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare. Teams at all
levels of implementation will have access to information that will help
increase the effectiveness of school-wide PBIS implementation at all three
tiers. Team members will come away from the two-day forum with knowledge
of how to develop/obtain advanced training on a range of topics and how to best
organize and deliver training for their schools, districts, and other
stakeholders. School-level teams should not register for this event
unless part of a district leadership team. Participants should register
as a team. Click here to
register.

Remember to mark your calendar for the annual Illinois
PBIS NetworkWinter Leadership Conference to be held in
O’Fallon, IL on January 23-24, 2013. Sessions will be delivered by
exemplars from across the state who will share a range of experiences in their
Universal, Secondary, and Tertiary PBIS implementation. Some of the
strands include Early Childhood, District Leadership, Coaching, High School,
Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, and School/Family/Community Partnerships.
Administrators’ Academies will also be available. This conference is an
excellent opportunity to learn information from implementers in the
field. Watch for the opportunity to register at www.pbisillinois.org.

Need to Know

There is now a Front Page News section on the
Illinois PBIS Network website, where the latest edition will be posted, and it
will also have an archive of previous editions. There is a subscribe
button on the webpage, so if someone wants to subscribe to those posts directly
you can. The page is: http://www.pbisillinois.org/Coaches/coaches-front-page-newsletter

This year the managing of PBIS Assessment survey windows
will be handled by the Illinois PBIS Network Evaluation Team. They
will also be handling routine tech support for schools experiencing problems
completing surveys, viewing reports, etc. Your TAC will continue to
provide technical assistance for the purpose and use of the tools, as well as
data-based decision-making and action planning.​

All schools with PBIS Assessment accounts will have the following
windows opened by the Evaluation Team during the year:

·Self-Assessment Survey (SAS) –
9/1/12 to 9/30/12 & 4/1/13 to 4/30/13

·Team Implementation Checklist (TIC) –
Open all year, schools can enter several times throughout the year as long as
there are 21 days between TIC entry.